A Scary Silence

The Guardian online has recently published an article asking if the newest Doctor Who enemy The Silence too scary for children.

Put simply, the answer is no.

Kasterborous recently published an article focusing on the fact that Doctor Who can be scary for kids but that’s okay because it’s a “good kind of scared”. The same point stands for The Silence. Of course it’s a scary idea for children, a monster that can make you forget about it as soon as you turn your back but that can inspire a child’s imagination in a brilliant way.

Playgrounds can now be full of kids pretending that they just haven’t seen a Silent; it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Children are always trying to scare themselves with creepy stories so why not let them enjoy a television show with a scary monster. They may have a nightmare or two, they may get unusually creeped out by a statue or a pepper pot but that’s good because this is how they start to differentiate between fantasy and reality.

There will always be scary stories for the children to enjoy, so it’s a good thing that the Doctor can be along for the ride as well.

The article also looks at Doctor Who’s recent ratings for the new series and seeds the idea that they are getting lower. But let’s not forget that on a blazingly hot bank holiday Saturday Doctor Who still managed to pull in 6.5 million viewers which is quite the achievement. That’s not even counting all those who watched it on BBC iPlayer when they got home or recorded it on Sky Plus. We live in a technological age where initial ratings no longer mean anything as viewers can choose when they want to watch their favourite shows.